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Appeal Court reserves judgement in Sokoto governorship suit

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja on Tuesday, reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State, Sai’du Umar, challenging the election of Governor Ahmed Aliyu of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court reserved judgement in the appeal to a date that would be communicated to parties in the matter.

The court reserved judgement after the parties adopted their processes filed in the appeal.

While Sunday Ameh (SAN) representing the appellants prayed the court to find merit in the appeal and allow it, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr Hassan Liman (SAN) and I. S. Mohammed representing the first to fourth respondents urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the judgement of the Sokoto state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared Ahmed Aliyu as the winner of the governorship election held in the state.

It would be recalled that a three-member panel of Justices at the State’s Election Petition Tribunal, led by Justice Haruna Msheila had, in a unanimous judgement delivered on September 30, dismissed the petition of the PDP and its governorship candidate in the last governorship election in Sokoto state.

The Tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove the six grounds formulated in their joint petition.

According to the Tribunal, the grounds stated in the petition bordered on alleged ineligibility for Aliyu and his deputy, Gobir to contest, falsification of certificates, variation of names, election frauds and non-compliance with electoral guidelines.

The lower court also held in its judgement that, the Petitioners were unable to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt as required by law, as 70 per cent of the exhibits they tendered were out of context because they relate to State Assembly elections conducted on the same day.

The tribunal chairman held that proving the forgery of two different documents required presenting persons, while the issue of variation of names was a settled decision of the Supreme Court.

The tribunal also held that the three subpoenaed witnesses were not tenable as they were not makers of the documents from the alleged primary school, and the 28 polling units’ agenda testified could not be identified along with their roles.

The tribunal also highlighted that the alleged 138 polling units’ frauds did not indicate substantial non-compliance to have marred the election outcome.

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